NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has hosted Denmark’s Defence Minister and Greenland’s Foreign Minister at NATO Headquarters for talks focused on security in the High North, according to the alliance.
The meeting addressed the growing strategic importance of the Arctic, including Greenland, within NATO’s collective defence posture. NATO said discussions centred on the region’s role in wider Alliance security and the need to maintain stability amid changing geopolitical and environmental conditions.
According to NATO, the Alliance has been increasing its ability to deter and defend in the High North, supported by a persistent presence intended to safeguard shared interests and support peace and stability across the region.
The alliance noted that member states have been investing in key military capabilities relevant to Arctic operations. Denmark was cited as an example, with recent and ongoing investments including additional air-to-air refuelling capacity, long-range uncrewed systems, maritime patrol aircraft and F-35 fighter jets.
NATO said Allies will continue working together to ensure the Alliance maintains the capabilities required to address security challenges across all regions, including the Arctic and High North.
One of the least reported and most scary facts of the last 48 hours is the US has activated 1500 soldiers in the 11th airborne. The reason given is they are on stand by to go to Minnesota however it doesn’t seem to make much sense to send soldiers from Alaska for such a duty. The 11th airborne is Americas only trained Arctic unit.
I’d heard of the soldiers placed on standby but didn’t realise their specialism. So much to learn about the world of defence.
I was scared from the moment Trump started attacking Venezuela, though, as his messages to the world made it sound like he was plundering them for oil
First thing I did was wonder if this would extend to Greenland, given they also have resources Trump might want to grab.
The temperature in Minnesota is -18 degrees, the soldiers from Alaska would be the most appropriate conditioned to be deployed there, in that low temperature environment.
I’m not sure what staggers me more that a US president has put the 11th airborne on standby to invade a fellow NATO country or essentially subdue one of its own states…
Especially given that the only violence in that state was ICE shooting an unarmed woman in the face.
All of Trump’s messages about making the world safe from threats are falling on deaf ears. To all those outside the USA, including its closest allies, America IS the threat. And if anyone thinks calmer heads will rein him in, look how many people voted for him. Are they really going to rise up against him when he’s apparently making them richer?
Trump is going bonkers, anything seems possible now. He wants Greenland, just for the sake of adding a large land mass to the USA for posterity – the defence excuse is exaggerated. Adding Greenland would mean changing the US flag … adding another star. That would result in Trump redesigning the US flag! Lol!
If they took Greenland they would not make it a state.. they would make it a territory. It’s full of natives Greenlanders a MAGA government would not give them voting seats in congress or the senate or college votes…
Xi is laughing his arse off as the US destroys its hegemony in weeks…
Expect the Chinese government to be offering words of support condolences and trade deals to Europe. If china can make the EU nations as well as Canada true neutrals as well as the works its doing on India and Korea ( it’s not going to bother with Japan, just plan to smash it to jelly if it even looks wrong, Japan knows it’s hated by China ) and the US somehow manages to make an Geostrategic enemy of the EU and Canada it’s utterly and completely geostrategically screwed in the long term.. is in a 1980s soviet level screwed. .. China will have successfully pulled off its dream, the geopolitical isolation of the US.
What Trump is doing is beyond monumentally stupid and the US establishment has such profound hubris in US power that it’s happily letting him do it.. it beggars belief really.
The best thing the EU can do if he does go for Greenland, is let him have it, and completely pull the plug on the US and focus entirely on China and India.. while geostrategically securing it’s primacy over Africa ( morally out the window in the new world ).. make it very clear to China that Europe with 25% of the worlds wealth is friendly and fully open on the proviso Xi controls his poodle Putin..then it builds its geostrategic hard power from the mid Atlantic to the mid Indian Ocean..
Not sure what the hell the UK would do in this new US-EU-India-China world but it would need to figure it quickly.
CANZUK
To be honest I think the best road for Canada in that case would be joining the EU and the EU nations supporting Canada to massively fortify itself against US aggression.. the reality is the UK Canada and Australia don’t have the mass to support each other across those distances.. if it could be made to work and include say Iceland and Norway.. it would offer a powerful group that could in theory hold its own.. but if the world turns into the Wild West ( and it will if the US invades Greenland ) then I don’t think we could generate the pure mass of naval and strategic air needed..
The reality is to stay a peer of a predatory US, Russia and China ( even god forbid potentially a predatory EU, that would not like an independent aircraft carrier and invasion route stuck at its most strategic bit) would as a power group need to be able to generate a good 3 carrier battle groups and 20+ SSNs.. have many hundreds of fighters in Canada, the UK, less in Australia ( due to being the arse end of the world ).. but lots in our other geostrategic hubs.. assention, Falklands, Cyprus, gib and the BIOT.. it would have massive geostrategic spread but keeping it all protected would be Herculean for the UK Canada and Aus….
I hope the rest of NATO has a plan to seize and close all US military bases in Europe if Taco is dumb enough to attack Greenland. That will be many USAF airfields and aircraft captured and US POWs
Let’s face it, if trump wants Greenland, his going to get it. A united Europe could stop him, but that would never happen, and anything less hasn’t got a hope of stopping the US.
All its doing is dividing NATO and making it easier for Putin as NATO nations worry about greenland rather than supporting ukraine.
What a stable world we currently live in.